Unbelievable that it had to be replaced with so few miles. It's great for you that this happened, just for the peace of mind. Never thought I'd say that about a repair!

So true. It got me thinking if sometimes it's something that they could have cleaned off the carbon instead of replacing the entire manifold. Was it a situation where the dealer has a hidden agenda for internal numbers/figures and chose to replace it instead?

Anyhow, the final after parts, labour, loaner and taxes went to $1958.90!

I need to get myself educated about the extended maintenance plans. All it takes is one repair like this and it's virtually paid for itself. I bet you're thanking your lucky stars for buying your plan!

I have heard of this before.
Earlier I had a E46 330d where the turbo was worn out and needed to be replaced.
At that incident I saw the inside of the intake manifold. It was all black and filled with some black residue from the EGR inlet. At that point the car had done +300.000km
I had it until 542.000km and had no problems with that myself though.
And yes, it is possible to blind the EGR and code it. I have seen this on other coding fora.

I need to get myself educated about the extended maintenance plans. All it takes is one repair like this and it's virtually paid for itself. I bet you're thanking your lucky stars for buying your plan!

I got some quotes some time ago from BMW vender over on Bimmerfest. I could not find a dealer that could beat his price.